In fishing reels and, in particular, bait cast reels, the spool carrying the fishing line is released from restraint so that it is freely rotatably during casting. During certain casts, the spool rotates faster than the line is drawn from the spool, resulting in backlash. The backlash causes the line to become entangled around the spool between the spool and the reel housing as the spool continues to rotate, releasing line even though the line is no longer being payed out from the reel. Centrifugal brakes have been tried to control the backlash, but unfortunately they either do not provide sufficient braking force to eliminate the problem or they overbrake the spool, shortening the cast.
Magnetic brakes have been proposed which have helped solve some of the backlash problem, but some of the structure for operating the magnetic brakes have produced problems that cause canting of the magnets and/or binding of the spool.